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2004 Toyota Prius Owner Comments (Page 2 of 3)

Prius

23,600 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Toyota Prius gas engine stalled after Toyota service patch was downloaded to correct problem. Bought car March 1, 2004. Car stalled May 13 and June 1- see report filed under May 13 date. July 31, 2004 Toyota downloaded patch to fix the problem and we thought it was fine. Car was ok for almost a year. Then, just 2 weeks ago on June 2, 2005 I was driving on the highway (luckily in a lot of slow traffic so only going about 40 mph) and the gas engine died again so the car dropped to 20mph on the electric engine. All warning lights came on again. This time I stopped and restarted the car and the engine (gas and electric) came back on. This is what the dealer had said that the other customers having the problem had found- if you stop and turn it back on after a stall everything works. So since my kids were not in the car I did this and drove it to a parking lot. The warning lights were still on and now I am really scared to drive the car. In all three situations I feel like I was just lucky that I was not going faster and especially inthe second case that the driver behind me was aware enough to avoid my suddenly powerless car. I thought it was important to report this because we thought Toyota's software download put in in July 2004 worked to fix this problem but it clearly is still happening. I will not drive the car now with my children in it and am considering getting rid of it. If it were any other car it would be gone by now, but we are big believers in the hybrid technology and really waited to report this to give Toyota a chance to fix it. I think this is happening a lot more than is being reported because a lot of the customers feel as we do that we do not want to report anything bad about the hybrid. However, this is too scary now and needs to be addressed. With a third baby on the way we were signed up for the hybrid highlander but unfortunately will wait until we know this problem is solved.

Prius 4-cyl

Automatic transmission

15,680 miles

I own a 2004 Toyota Prius, 15680 miles. The engine stopped when I was driving at about 60 mph and all warning lights came on. I was able to drive it on the electrical motor for about 1 mile to a gas station before the battery ran out. I had it towed to my dealer, Toyota of bowie in md. The next day, it started right up and they said that they checked it and could find nothing wrong with it. This happened a few days before news stories of similar complaints. This is a frightening, and potentially very dangerous problem. I'm surprised and upset that the dealer or Toyota has not contacted me with a fix since they have learned about this problem.

Prius 4-cyl

Automatic transmission

15,000 miles

My 2004 Prius lost power when I was traveling at about 65-70 miles per hour on 2/21/05. I had electric power for a few minutes so that I could pull off at an exit. All the warning/caution lights came on. The kern Toyota dealership in winchester va had my car towed in. They kept the car overnight. They said that they reprogrammed my computer and the car was fine. They offered no other explanation or possible future concerns. I reported this to Toyota management this morning and have a confirmation # if needed. I just saw the articles where they noted 33 other incidents like mine.

Prius

Automatic transmission

11,568 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

I have a 2004 Prius that stalled on the freeway this February for no reason. When we took it to the dealer, the mechanics said they had no idea why it happened, but that they "reset the computer" and it wouldn't happen again.

Prius 4-cyl

Automatic transmission

38,401 miles

I pulled out of a parking space into traffic and the car immediately stalled. I couldn't turn it off, and I couldn't get it into drive. Park and neutral were the only options. Traffic was coming at me from both directions and there was nothing I could do, but put on the 4 way flashers.using my cell phone I called the local dealership and they advised me to have the car towed. I called the tow company.

Prius 4-cyl

Automatic transmission

5,351 miles

Yaps (yet another Prius stall). I was not going fast - probably about 10-15 mph. Just like the other reports, it lost power, all the warning lights came on, and it coasted to a halt. I was able to restart it but the ice would not kick in so it ran in electric mode only. After less than a mile the battery was almost drained so I had to pull over and park it. Had it towed in to the nearest dealer - Toyota of seattle - where they said it was a software issue and they'd seen it before. They performed an upgrade and returned it to me.

Prius 4-cyl

Prius

miles

I am estimating the dates - I took my 2004 Prius to the dealer on October 12, as it was not driving right since I had done a "hard brake" the week before. The service dept was unable to find anything amiss. Then, while driving to work that Friday, my car indicated that I needed to stop the car immediately (via the red triangle etc. Lights on dashboard). I was travelling at about 45 miles per hour at the time. I coasted into a left turn lane, but was unable to complete the turn into the parking lot as the car had shut down. I was pushed into the parking lot. I contacted the dealer and the car was towed to the nearest dealer (larry miller Toyota on w. bell road). I was told the ECU was reprogrammed and that there was a service bulletin that was not sent to owners, but directed dealers to do the fix only when there was a car with the failure. My car has exhibited the red triangle one other time, 4/15/05 I believe, it was towed again, to bell road Toyota. The answer seems to be "if there is no code on the computer that something is wrong, we cannot fix it, since we don't know where the problem is."

Prius 4-cyl

Automatic transmission

6,000 miles

Dad: Vehicle runs and suddenly stalls and stops working. Owner attempts to start car again, and it does not start. Car was taken to the dealer three times, and dealer fixed it. But, after some time the car did not work again. Owner stated that car was serviced on regular basis.

Prius

11,000 miles

My 2004 Toyota Prius stalled while traveling about 40-45 mph with a full tank of gas on 5/14/05. The check engine light came on and it coasted to a stop. I turned off the power switch and restarted it and the engine came back on and ran fine except with the check engine light still on. The next day the check engine light was off and the engine ran fine. I took it in to the dealer's service center and they said they did something with the softwear and it should run fine now.

Prius

Automatic transmission

2,415 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

My 2004 Prius' combustion engine shut down on the freeway in Sep'04. The car switched to battery mode only and rolled on until the battery was completely drained and then completely stalled. I got stuck in lanes, created a rush-hour traffic jam, and had to be pushed to a shoulder by a police car. The car was towed to a dealer who said it was a software glitch which they proceeded to fix and the car has been working well since then.

Prius 4-cyl

Automatic transmission

8,295 miles

Engine warning light came on while driving approximately 55-60 mph. Gas power quit and consumed all electric power and car stopped. Coasted to the side of the road. Could not get the car to go into any gear -- stuck in park. Had to have it towed to dealer.

Prius 4-cyl

Automatic transmission

4,458 miles

While driving at 30 - 35 mph, the engine of my 2004 Toyota Prius cut off without warning. The "warning lamp" turned on at the time the engine quit, not before. I coasted to a stop in a nearby parking lot. When I could not restart the car, I called aaa for towing. After waiting 30 minutes, I tried to start the engine again, and it started with no problem. No warning lights were on, and I had no further problem. I had a second incident identical to the first, except this tmie I tried to restart the motor after waiting only 4 -5 minutes.

Prius 4-cyl

Automatic transmission

7,000 miles

2004 Prius, gas engine stalled while excellerating to merge onto freeway during rush hour, was forced to exit on electric engine in heavy traffic driving at 30mph. After exiting freeway and turning car off it would not restart. Vehicle finally restarted and I was able to drive with master check engine light on. Dealer said the car needed to have software reset, but never gave explaination of what caused original problem. I am guessing at the incident date it was month or so back.

Prius

Automatic transmission

miles

My 2004 Toyota Prius stalled when I was going approximately 40 mph. I was able to coast to the shoulder, but then the car had to be towed to a dealership for a programming fix before I could drive it again.

Prius 4-cyl

Automatic transmission

41,900 miles

On four separate occasions the Prius has had a complete loss of power to the gasoline engine, all the warning indicator lights have been illuminated and the car was able to travel only on battery power for a very short distance before draining the battery. Twice this has occurred after stopping at a stop sign and attempting to proceed forward. Twice it has happened while driving on the highway at 60-70 mph. When it occurred on the highway the car lost power except from the battery that allowed only 40-42 mph maximum speed. Twice the car was towed to the dealer. The first time they performed a software update the second time they reset the computer. The last two times it has happened I have been able to stop the car, disconnect the 12 volt battery which has reset the system and the car performs as expected. This would appear to be software "bug" that requires further investigation by Toyota. In any case, this type of occurrence causes an unsafe condition to occur.

Prius 3-cyl

Automatic transmission

12,000 miles

1. I was driving around 30 to 40 mph and the gas engine failed suddenly during the course of normal driving, leaving only the electrical engine running. At the same time the engine failed, many lights turned on on the dashboard. 2. I was on a canyon road in the los angeles mountains when it failed, which was a single lane road each way with nowhere to pull off. Luckily, I had just reached on of the crests in the canyon when the engine failed, so with the electrical engine I was able to coast to a side street. Once on the side street, the electrical engine died quickly, probably because of the steep slope upwards of the street. 3. I tried to turn off the car and it wouldn't turn off, so I popped the hood and got out to see if there was an obvious problem. Finding no problem I could see I went back inside the car and held down the power button until the vehicle turned off finally. When the vehicle turned back on, the engine sempt to work normally, and I immediately went to the nearest Toyota dealer. They said they had heard of the problem once or twice before and it requires a software update to the car. I was weary of their proposed solution since it is such a dangerous problem, but that's all they said they could do, so I told them to go ahead.

Prius

Automatic transmission

6,800 miles

Consumer stated while traveling 40 mph all of a sudden, the lights illuminated on the dashboard and then everything shut off. The consumer had the vehicle towed to the dealer and they said it was a computer glitch regarding the release of gas to the engine. Just before a loss of power the dvd navigation system went completely out about 2 miles before everything else. The dvd navigation system failed as well.

Prius 4-cyl

Automatic transmission

15,050 miles

I had driven approximatley 20 miles to my hockey game and was driving at 40 mph. An ! and check engine light came on and the car was then reduced to only running off of battery. I was able to pull off the road without danger and shut down the car and checked the oil and gas to verify that wasn't the cause of the issue. After approximately 3 minutes I started the car and the ! and check engine light remained on, but the gas engine was functioning correctly. I drove the remaining 3 miles to my destination and called Toyota roadside assistance and arranged for a tow truck. After finishing up my hockey game ( 1 hour) I was able to start the car and there were not warning lights or issues. I canceled the tow truck and drove the car to the dealer. The next day the dealer updated the code in the car to us tsb EG047-04. I have been driving the car since they updated the code without issue.

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